Tales of the Lin Kuei
by Poe's Daughter
Summary: This is a collection of short stories that recount moments in Sub-Zero's, Tundra's, and Smoke's childhoods.
1. Khir

**Author's Note: While I was writing "Sub-Zero Origins," I kept coming up with these funny ideas about moments in Kuai Liang's, Tomas's, and Bi-han's childhoods. I knew I wanted to explore those adventures in a separate story eventually, and today I just had the urge to jot the first two down. Each chapter is really a stand-alone story, and I'll just keep tacking on more until I run out of ideas. So I hope you enjoy my collection of their childhood misadventures in the Lin Kuei!**

* * *

Young Tomas Vrbada, age ten, was so hungry one afternoon that his belly ached in terrible pain. After Jiao-long, who was five years his elder and would later go by the code-name Sektor, greedily stole his bowl of lo mein noodles at dinner the night before, he retaliated by slipping one of his miniature smoke bombs into the bully's bowl of rice pudding. It exploded with more ferocity than he expected, and sticky grains not only coated Jiao-long, but most of the dining hall as well. He and his best friend, Kuai Liang, about died of laughter, literally rolling on the floor guffawing as their nemesis sat motionless on the bench, his eyes bugging from his head in shock as rice dripped from his hair. But Grandmaster Oniro was decidedly furious with Tomas for his stunt, so after personally beating him and then making him clean the mess, he punished him by forcing him to walk the Lin Kuei temple's perimeter, an area approximately fifty square miles, with no food. So after hiking up and down the Himalayas for hours on an empty stomach, Tomas's tummy cramped so badly that he was nauseous.

When the boy saw a shepherd herding his sheep across a high mountain pasture just outside Lin Kuei borders, he stealthily followed in the hopes that a bit of food would present itself. The man led his sheep as well as Tomas directly to his home, a humble yurt built at the edge of the evergreen trees. The boy watched from behind a large boulder as the shepherd ushered his flock into a simple, wooden pen.

The man patted one of his animals on the head as he locked the gate and said, "I've worked hard today. I think I'll make some _khir_ to treat myself." Then he went into his yurt.

Tomas immediately began to drool. _Khir_, a Tibetan dessert made with rice, coconut, raisins, and cashews, was one of his favorite foods. His stomach churned hungrily as the sweet smell of yak milk boiling with sugar wafted through the mountain air. He just had to have some.

"What do you think you're doing, _lun yeung_?" a voice hissed softly behind him. The boy whipped around and saw the bully, Jiao-long, crouched behind him.

"Thinking about snagging some _khir_," he replied honestly, ignoring the curse word his enemy leveled at him in Cantonese.

"You're supposed to be starving," the older boy sneered.

"Oh, come on Jiao-long. If you help me, I'll share it with you. You know, as a peace offering to apologize for last night. What do you say?"

The red-clad teenager narrowed his eyes. "Very well," he conceded after a long moment. "What do you want to do?"

"The shepherd just started cooking it, so it's going to be a while before it's ready to eat," Tomas began. "Since it's almost nightfall, we should wait here. When it gets dark, you howl like a wolf." The Lin Kuei were trained to make different animal sounds to use as secret signals, and no one was better at a wolf cry than his tormentor, Tomas grudgingly admitted to himself.

"And then what?"

"Well, that'll scare the shepherd and he'll come out of his house to make sure his sheep are safe. While he's distracted, I'll sneak in and get the _khir_. Then I'll bring it to you and we can share it."

"Okay," the older boy agreed.

All went as planned. When night fell a short time later, Jiao-long hid behind the boulder and howled. As expected, the clueless shepherd immediately bolted from his yurt carrying a heavy club. When he ran around the pen to find the offending wolf, Tomas made himself invisible and darted inside. There, he found a large terra cotta dish full of fresh, heavenly _khir_ cooling on the woodstove. The boy promptly grabbed the dessert and ran from the hut, slipping into the evergreens where he knew he'd be safe from detection, and deeply breathed in the sweet and spicy aroma of cinnamon and cardamom.

Tomas had no intention of sharing this wonderful treat with his enemy. He was far too hungry, for one, and for two it was Jiao-long's fault that he was being punished like this to begin with. Of course, the teenager was never at fault in the eyes of Oniro. One of the perks of being the Grandmaster's son, he supposed. But even still, he couldn't return to his partner empty-handed.

So he began to think, and it occurred to him what he could do. Very carefully, he pulled the cashew-dusted skin back and ate all the custard beneath. _Khir_ always satisfied his belly, but today, because he was especially hungry, it was the most wonderful food ever. He ravenously wolfed it down, shoveling it in his mouth with his fingers as quickly as he could, and didn't stop devouring the tasty dessert, even when his stomach began to burst at the seams. Tomas vaguely knew he was going to have a tummyache from eating so much so fast, but he didn't care. The _khir _tasted fantastic.

When he was finally finished, he scooped handfuls of dirt and rocks into the dish before he carefully replaced the skin. Then he trilled like a sparrow to call to his partner. Within minutes, Jiao-long found him and knelt beside him. Tomas immediately thrust the terra cotta bowl at his partner.

"Let's divide the _khir_ equally between us," he said. "One of us should have the skin – that's my favorite part because I love the cashews – and the other can have the bottom."

"You're dumber than you look," Jiao-long said. "The bottom is the best part. I'm taking it."

"Fine by me," Tomas replied. He quickly ate the top, savoring the crunch of the cashews.

Then, when Jiao-long stuck his fingers into the dish and found dirt instead of dessert, he growled angrily and swung a fist at the younger boy, who'd already jumped back, laughing. "I'm so sorry, my friend!" he cried. "But it's not my fault that's how the shepherd makes his _khir_." The teenager lunged at Tomas, but he calmly became invisible and slipped silently into the trees, his tummy well filled. He felt a few granules on his tongue from where the skin on the dessert got a tad dirty, but he didn't mind. The look on the bully's face had been worth it.


	2. The Well

Everyone in the Lin Kuei recognized that there were two truths when it came to the little Cryomancer, Kuai Liang: he was a terrible klutz, but even still he was somehow an astonishing hunter for his age. At least once a week, he escaped his rigorous training in the temple compound, leaving it in solitude carrying his bow and a quiver of arrows, and always returned with a prize. He commonly bagged deer, tahrs, mountain goats, eagles, and choughs, but his most impressive kill to date was a snow leopard. Nobody, least of all his father, An Zhi, would have believed he'd accomplished such a feat as uncoordinated as he was, but he'd returned with the carcass and the claw marks on his arms to verify his story.

One evening, Kuai Liang tracked a wolf. As he stepped through the dark woods, scarcely able to see, he tripped on something large and shifting. The boy landed squarely on his knee, and as it stung and wept blood through his black ninja pants, he heard the clattering of metal spilling onto the forest floor. He grimaced and held his knee with both hands for a moment, gradually chilling it with his powers to dull the sudden pain, and then he felt around for whatever it was he stumbled on. His short fingers immediately felt round coins spilling from a leather purse. Kuai Liang quickly found a match packed into in a compartment built into his quiver – the compartment housed other tiny survival items as well – and he lit it to reveal a small mound of gold money lying in the dirt. Someone must have dropped it while travelling through the forest.

_Cool_! Kuai Liang thought with excitement. He practically drooled when he thought of how much hard candy he and Tomas could buy in Xiao-Ping's store in Tingri with all this money. They'd be set for life! He gathered up the coins and shoved them back in the pouch before he hid it inside his black shirt.

He got to his feet and resumed his journey. The wolf's cry led him to a very large yurt on the outskirts of Tingri that was surrounded by a towering wall. When he reached it, the eight-year-old assassin-in-training thought nothing of it. He quickly found a crack that was concealed by thick shrubs, and he assumed the wolf must've slipped through it to get inside. The passage was so narrow that he had to shove his bow and quiver through ahead of him, and even still he nearly got stuck, but his tiny body finally squeezed through.

When he got inside, Kuai Liang noticed that in addition to the yurt, there was a small barn as well as henhouse inside the stone wall. But he was excited to see a large well near the henhouse; he had been hiking through the forest for hours, and had drank the last of the water in his canteen a while ago, so he was terribly thirsty. Keeping his eyes peeled for the wolf, he darted across the yard through shadows cast by the pale moonlight, and rushed to the well for a drink.

It was large and deep, with two buckets that could be raised and lowered into the depths to draw up water. It was very old as well, the mortar between its bricks crumbling and in disrepair. He set his bow and quiver to the side, and reached for the rope. Even though some of the stones wiggled under his body, Kuai Liang still leaned across the wellhead to grab the bucket, vaguely observing the faint glow of the moon on the water far below. Small for his age, the little Cryomancer couldn't quite reach the bucket, so he scooted his body further out and waved his hand around to try to grasp it. Suddenly, a segment of bricks shifted under his body's weight and threw him down. He free-fell forever, it seemed, before he finally hit the water with a huge splash.

It took a moment for Kuai Liang to realize what had happened. He was stuck in a well filled with ice cold water, and as he floated in it, his teeth began to chatter as his body temperature plummeted. The boy quickly swam to the wall and tried to get a foothold in a tiny crack, but it was just too small and slippery, and he promptly fell back into the water, sinking under momentarily before resurfacing. In frustration, he summoned his powers to his fists and tried to form ice daggers like his big brother, Bi-han, would've, hoping that he could stick them into the cracks and use them to climb up. But the only thing Kuai Liang accomplished was making his hands icy and cold.

As he tread water, he thought about calling for help, but decided that would be his last resort. Grandmaster Oniro, he knew, disapproved of his Lin Kuei underlings engaging with the locals in any way. The punishment for associating with outsiders was harsh; the offending warrior would be flogged with a cat o'nine tails, a terrifying whip with nine leather straps attached to a thick handle, and tiny hooks sewn into the end of each one. Kuai Liang had seen it used only once on an adult warrior named Ryoma because the man had been caught interacting with a woman in Tingri. If the Cryomancer boy called for help, it would certainly get back to Oniro, and he would be beaten so hard that chunks of skin would be ripped from his back.

On the other hand, Kuai Liang had no clue how he was supposed to get out, and he couldn't stay down here forever. That would be just as bad as getting flogged. Hypothermia would eventually set in the longer he floated in the frigid water. Just because he had the power to control the cold didn't mean that he was invulnerable to it.

If only he could reach one of those buckets!

He peered up at them, hating them for dangling above him, teasing him. As he swam there shivering, pondering on ways to get one of the buckets down, he heard the wolf howl once more. That was immediately followed by the sound of a large animal sneaking into the henhouse and startling the fowl awake before abruptly silencing them. He knew the creature had killed his prey.

To Kuai Liang's surprise, however, a red-clad figure appeared and looked down in curiosity. He held a bloody white bag over his shoulder, and feathers stuck out of his tunic and jet-black hair. The Cryomancer immediately recognized his greatest tormentor.

"Jiao-long!" he called. "So _you're_ the wolf." Oniro's son could imitate a wolf quite well.

The teenager laughed cruelly. "Kuai Liang, is that you?"

"Yeah, it's me!" he called. "Why are you pretending to be a wolf?"

"I'm tired of eating yak and deer meat, so I decided to catch some poultry for once," the other replied. "Didn't want my father to find out, though, so I thought it'd be best to let these dumb peasants think a wolf was prowling around. That way, they could blame the wolf for their dead hens." He looked down on Kuai Liang with a devilish grin. "I thought I recognized your bow. Too bad you were hunting me. You have to be smarter than your prey, you know."

"Um, okay," the Cryomancer replied, uncertain where he was going with that.

"I always liked this bow," he said, holding it up. "Didn't Hydro make it for you?" He paused. "Guess it's mine now."

"No it's not! Give it back!"

"Or what? You'll splash me?"

Kuai Liang thought about it. A wicked expression crossed the bully's eyes, and the little Cryomancer knew he was on his own. There was no way Jiao-long was helping him out of the well, even if he pleaded. But then again, maybe he _would _help him out.

"I only left my bow up there because I was searching for gold down here," he called up. Kuai Liang felt through his shirt for the purse. Underwater, he gripped several coins in his hand. "Look what I've found," he said, holding it up so that the moonlight shone on the precious metal. It glittered, casting sparkling rays on the stone walls.

"Are you serious?" Jiao-long asked. "Where did you get that?"

"Down here," he lied. "The people who live here are sitting on a fortune. I think that's why they built the stone wall around their house. They don't want people to find all this gold."

"I don't believe you," the other replied. "That's not real gold."

"I'll prove it to you! Send down the bucket and pull me up."

"All right, you little maggot, I will!" Greedy for gold, Jiao-long churned the handle and lowered the bucket. When it reached Kuai Liang, he gripped the rope tightly and hoisted himself up, using the container as a foothold. When he was safely inside, the red-clad teenager turned the handle once more, this time in reverse, and brought him back to the surface. "Let me see that!" he yelled at the younger boy as he snatched the pile of coins from his palm.

As Jiao-long examined the treasure, Kuai Liang looked at his bow in desperation. He loved it, not only because it was a trusty tool for hunting, but because his Sifu, Hydro, secretly gave it to him for his birthday. The Lin Kuei did _not_ celebrate birthdays, and even his father didn't care to observe it, so the gift was special to the young Cryomancer. He wasn't about to let his nemesis take it from him. With a grunt, he ripped it from the preoccupied teenager's hands, then whirled around in an arch with it, and promptly swept his legs from beneath him. Jiao-long fell onto the crumbling wellhead with a startled yelp, and then screamed in fright as it collapsed beneath him. He flailed around for something to catch, but it was no use. He fell into the well with a noisy splash.

"Get me out of here!" he roared at little Kuai Liang.

"I don't think so!" the angry Cryomancer yelled back. "Have fun down there. And by the way, Jiao-long, the only gold down there is _fool's_ gold!" With that, he took his bow and ran away as the Grandmaster's son loudly thrashed around and yelled for help.

When Jiao-long finally returned to the Lin Kuei temple late that night, Kuai Liang, Tomas, and Bi-han peeked around the corner and spied on his upbraiding by Oniro. Jiao-long had been beaten, and sported large goose-eggs on his face and arms, gifts from the farmer who pulled him from the well, the three boys learned. Oniro screamed at him in disgust for stealing hens like a common thief, and then for getting caught so shamefully. The Grandmaster would hear nothing of why it happened, but neither did he order that his only son be flogged. Rather, he sent the teenager away in disgrace, declaring that his dishonor was punishment enough.

After that, Jiao-long was always trying to get back at Kuai Liang – but those are tales for another time.


	3. A Day in the Life of Bi han

In the thin gray light of dawn, Bi-han woke to an abrupt crash followed by hysterical giggling and Kuai Liang's voice whispering, "Tomas! Be quiet!" The fifteen-year-old boy promptly opened his eyes and scanned his surroundings. In the corner of the small and humble room the three shared, Bi-han saw his little brother and pseudo-brother frantically trying to shove some creature into a box.

"What are you two jerks doing?" he demanded to know as he rubbed the sleep from his eyes.

There was a startled pause as they both jumped and looked around from the wooden crate they had been fumbling with. As always when he saw his brother, Bi-han felt pulled in two opposite directions at once. He loved Kuai Liang and hated to see him donning the robes of the Lin Kuei and sporting more black marks than a cheetah – most of them bruises from being so clumsy – because this was _not_ the life they were supposed to lead. But on the other hand, a horrible anger consumed him. Were it not for the fact that An Zhi would've maimed or killed the little boy in retaliation, Bi-han would've escaped by now. So whenever he looked at Kuai Liang, he routinely had to stifle his urge to beat the living tar out of him.

"Nothing," his brother said quickly.

"Idiot, I can see the animal," he snapped as he threw off his blankets and rolled off his mat and onto his knees. He crawled to them. "What is that thing?" he asked as he peered at the rodent-like creature in Kuai Liang's hands.

"It's a marten, Bi-han," Tomas answered.

"It looks like a weasel crossed with a chipmunk," he said. "Where'd it come from?"

"The forest," his brother replied.

Bi-han promptly smacked him on the back of his head. "No kidding, genius."

"Well, then why'd you ask?"

"What'd you do, catch it in one of your hunting traps?"

"Uh huh!" Kuai Liang said proudly, beaming with pride. "I was trying to catch a fox, but this little guy got caught in the trap instead. So me and Tomas thought we'd bring him home and keep him as a pet."

"Cool, huh?" Tomas added.

The teenager rolled his eyes as the two boys looked at him expectantly. He scoffed. "Sure, very cool," he said drily. "So, you guys are gonna feed and water him?"

"Yup!" they said as one.

"And clean up after him, and play with him?"

"Yup!"

"Good. There's just one problem with this whole thing," he began.

"What?" Kuai Liang wanted to know.

Bi-han smacked his head again. "Dad, you moron!" he snapped as his kid brother yelped and rubbed his scalp. "What do you think he's gonna do when he finds out you have this thing? Oniro too. They'll both beat you within an inch of your life. You'd think you idiots would learn by now."

"Oh," Tomas said. "I hadn't thought of that."

The teenager got to his feet, gripped his shirt, and pulled it on. "Of course you didn't. You never do. But you're not gonna drag me into this stupid plan of yours. I get enough beatings without your help. So get that rodent out of here before _I_ beat the crap out of you."

"Yes, Bi-han," Kuai Liang said, crushed.

"Yes, Bi-han," Tomas said, equally distraught.

In the dining hall at breakfast, Bi-han immediately spotted Bomani, a thirteen-year-old Tswanan who wore a yellow sash over his robes, sitting alone at the only vacant table. He was the new kid, having been stolen from his village in Africa and brought to the temple not six months prior. The teenaged Cryomancer felt lukewarm towards him. When it was just him, Bomani was a decent kid. But unfortunately, he followed Jiao-long like a lost puppy, so when he was with him, he had the tendency to be a jerk. Thankfully, Jiao-long was nowhere in sight, so Bi-han joined him.

"I never saw snow until I came here," he said with a thick Tswanan accent as he pointed out the large windows. His English was decent. Bi-han knew from previous conversations with him that American and European missionaries visited his people and taught them the language. Outside, a raging blizzard swirled snow around.

"Yeah, well, get used to it," Bi-han told him before he swallowed a spoonful of porridge.

"My parents promised they'd show me snow someday," Bomani announced. "But they died. There was a sickness in my village. Outsiders came with doctors. They called it…cholera." He sounded out the last word slowly, as if he weren't certain he was correct. He looked to Bi-han for affirmation.

"Cholera," he repeated, nodding.

Bomani looked back out the window. "It's so white," he said. "I never dreamed it was so white. It feels like Heaven."

Bi-han raised an eyebrow and glanced out. "I think it feels like prison."

Later that morning, when it was time for the children to go through their kata with Sifu Halsey, code-name Hydro, Bi-han wasn't surprised when Kuai Liang and Tomas rushed in late. The two boys naturally found the empty spaces beside him, and as they breathlessly got into their stances and joined the motion of the class, Bi-han looked at them. Both of them had longish, unkempt hair – Kuai Liang's was brown and Tomas's was strangely white – dusted in snow. So were their robes, for that matter, and their tabi boots were soaked and muddy. He gave them a disapproving stare.

"You're late," he whispered in annoyance at them.

"We were releasing the marten," Kuai Liang whispered back.

"It took you that long to throw an animal out the back door?"

"We didn't want anyone to hurt him, so we took him into the woods."

Bi-han shook his head and grunted. "Argh! You are such a girl!" he hissed.

"Bi-han! Kuai Liang!" Hydro, a British man with a heavy accent, barked at them from the front of the training room. "Come here now!"

"Yes, Sifu," both Cryomancers said at once. As they headed towards him, Bi-han shot an evil look at his brother. He knew he was in trouble. They both were.

When they reached the front, Hydro crossed his arms. "Tell me, what's so important you two gits couldn't wait 'til after training to tell each other?" Behind them, Bi-han heard several of the boys snickering softly. His ears burned in fury.

"Nothing, Sifu," Kuai Liang answered as he looked at the floor. He hated upsetting Hydro because the elderly man was more fatherly towards him than An Zhi ever could be. Bi-han felt similarly.

"Well, since you two have extra energy to gossip, I think you should grace us with a demonstration," the older warrior said. "You've clearly mastered these forms, so I think we'd all like to see how it's done. Get into position."

Both boys sighed at once. It wasn't a fair match because Kuai Liang was so much smaller than Bi-han, and far less experienced as well. But they obeyed and faced each other. The older brother didn't want to hurt his littler one, so he let the child make the first move. Kuai Liang threw a perfectly executed punch at his brother's chest, but Bi-han calmly deflected it, grabbed him by the wrist, and twisted it around. He put just enough pressure on it to bring the boy to his knees, but was impressed when the other gracefully twisted his arm in the other direction, broke free, and countered with a punch to his thigh.

The tense ache of a charlie-horse filled Bi-han's leg as Kuai Liang straightened tall. The older Cryomancer ignored the slight pain, however, and threw a rapid succession of punches at his brother, landing each one in various points on his chest and arms to distract him, and then finished with a firm kick to the stomach. The younger boy toppled to the mat with a surprised yelp, and Bi-han didn't give him a chance to get up. He immediately pinned his brother down and raised his fist high above his head as if to strike.

"Stay down, Kuai Liang," he ordered. His little brother didn't know it yet, but he didn't mean it. Because their father was such a brutal, heartless man who didn't believe in the power of positive encouragement, Bi-han took to telling his brother to yield, which was his secret way of telling him to keep fighting. He never wanted Kuai Liang to give up. _Never_.

As he hoped, the little boy struggled to get free, but Hydro immediately stopped them. "That's enough, boys," he said. "Get up."

Bi-han stood up and gave his hand to Kuai Liang, lifting him to his feet. The teenager couldn't help but smirk as he looked at his brother. He saw the frustration in his eyes not so much for losing the match, but from the hunger of wanting to keep trying and not being able to. It blazed in the child's blue eyes like fire. Kuai Liang looked up at him hopelessly, so Bi-han raised his eyebrows knowingly at him.

Hydro looked at them with his arms crossed. "Well done, Bi-han," he said. "Kuai Liang, your form was sloppy. During study time tonight, you'll accompany me and go through your kata five times because you clearly need more practice."

The younger Cryomancer wrenched his face in unhappiness while the boys behind them sniggered even more. Bi-han couldn't blame his brother for being upset. Even with this added punishment, he'd still be expected to complete his schoolwork, and Sifu Dimitri, their professor, always assigned a mountain of it. The eight-year-old would be working well into the night.

Hydro frowned. "It's obvious to me that neither one of you are experts. Therefore, I expect that during your training, you gits won't cluck on like a bunch of hens." The other boys laughed again, but their teacher ignored them. "Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes, Sifu," Bi-han said. But Kuai Liang merely hung his head.

"Kuai Liang?" their elder prompted impatiently. Still, the boy said nothing, clearly distraught, so his older brother nudged him before he made his punishment worse.

Finally, he sighed. "Yes, Sifu."

"Good, now get back to your places and pay attention!"

After training, Bi-han sat by himself at lunch and flipped through an ancient book nearly 500 years old. It was _The History of the Lin Kuei_, and it was his favorite book, even though he resented being a part of that history. Printed on papyrus and carefully bound in leather, it showed in Cantonese characters, delicate watermarks, and beautiful paintings all the key figures and events in the clan's past. But one entry stood out the most to the teenager.

For the thousandth time since Bi-han discovered the book in the temple library, he read the passage and then studied the portrait of the man it spoke about. If the colorful painting could be trusted, the man had short hair nearly black, and a body built rather like a bull, with a broad chest and thick neck attached to a strong face. His sapphire eyes were cold and ruthless, chilling the teenaged Cryomancer to the bone. This man had been a rebel, had killed his Grandmaster for some reason lost to history, and fled the Lin Kuei. This man was his ancestor: Sub-Zero. And Bi-han was obsessed with him.

"Whatcha looking at, Bi-han?" Kuai Liang asked as he flopped on the bench beside him.

"Nothing," he snapped as he slammed the book shut. "Go away."

"But I want to see!" He reached across his brother and clawed at the book, so the older of the two immediately slapped his hand. "Ow!" he cried.

"Can't I have just two minutes without you bothering me?"

Kuai Liang rubbed his hand and scowled. "I don't know what you're getting so upset about. It's just a book. And a boring one at that. _The History of the Lin Kuei_?"

"If it's so boring to you, then feel free to get lost."

"You're a jerk, Bi-han!"

"And you're a pest!"

Suddenly, a new hand snatched the book from the table. Both boys looked up to see Jiao-long, flanked by Bomani and Shen, start flipping through the book with a wicked grin. "What are you two girls fighting about?" he teased.

"Give that back!" Bi-han snapped. "I was reading that."

"Nah, I think I'm gonna keep it. Might learn something useful," the red-clad teenager said.

"How you planning on doing that?" Kuai Liang began in a dangerous tone. "You actually have to know _how_ to read first." He smirked at his enemy.

"You think that's funny?" Jiao-long replied in an equally ominous voice. "You know, Kuai Liang, the story of David and Goliath is just something people made up to sell Bibles."

"Don't talk to my brother that way," Bi-han hissed, not liking the veiled threat he heard. He felt his icy powers surge to the surface.

Jiao-long sneered. "Or what?" He nodded over his shoulder at Oniro, who was eating at his personal table at the front of the room. All the boys knew he never punished his son. Not like he punished them. Bi-han knew he wouldn't care if Jiao-long beat up Kuai Liang.

"Or you'll have to deal with me," he said, narrowing his eyes.

"And then my father will deal with you."

"I don't care, it'll be worth it."

Jiao-long chuckled. "Thanks for the book," he said as he wandered away with his lackeys in tow.

When they were gone, Kuai Liang looked at him with an apologetic expression. "Thanks for sticking up for me," he said.

Bi-han promptly smacked him on the head. "That was my book!" he cried angrily. "That idiot wouldn't have taken it if I weren't distracted by you. You're nothing but a pest. Get away from me!"

"I'm sorry, Bi-han!" the little boy yelped, a wounded expression filling his blue eyes.

"You're always getting me into trouble. I hate you!" With that, the elder brother jumped to his feet and stormed from the dining hall, leaving Kuai Liang all alone at the table to think about what he'd done.

During history class, Sifu Dimitri droned on in an even more monotonous, boring tone than usual, teaching the boys about Alexander the Great's conquest of Greece and Asia, so Bi-han's attention waned. He glanced over at his brother, who was sitting with Tomas as always. While the Czech boy was focused intently on the lesson, Kuai Liang hung his head in defeat. Bi-han frowned. After languages, history was his kid brother's favorite subject. He should be lapping this crap up. But it was obvious he wasn't listening at all. And Bi-han wasn't the only one who noticed.

"Kuai Liang!" Sifu Dimitri roared as he hit the boy's table with a thin pointer stick. Everyone in the room jumped at least ten feet in the air. Unlike Hydro, who had a reasonably even temper, the gigantic Russian man had an extremely short fuse, almost as short as An Zhi's. "Why aren't you paying attention?" he yelled

"Uh…uh…uh…" the eight-year-old stuttered. Bi-han felt slightly sorry for him. He had been on the receiving end of Dimitri's temper before, and he'd hated every second of it.

"Everyone, get up!" the teacher commanded. Immediately, all the boys obeyed, scrambling to their feet and standing at attention. "I'm not going to punish you, Kuai Liang," he said. He gestured with his hand toward all the other boys. "Since you're having trouble paying attention, I'm going to give you something more interesting to look at. Everyone will do exactly 100 squat thrusts, as fast as they can. Now!"

Bi-han joined the chorus of groans as he rapidly bent his knees, threw his body forward and his legs back to do a push-up, pulled his legs under him, and then stood. He _hated_ squat thrusts, and he silently cursed his little brother for his punishment. Why couldn't they go one day without something like this happening? Of course, he reasoned, he was probably partially to blame for this latest incident as well. He largely suspected that his brother was upset for being yelled at during lunch, and that's why he hadn't been paying attention like he should've been. So Bi-han stopped screaming mental profanities at Kuai Liang and finished his sentence in silence.

Jiao-long finished his squat thrusts a few moments before the elder Cryomancer, and when Bi-han finally righted himself, he saw the other boy stare at his brother threateningly. He sucked in a deep breath. He didn't like the bully looking at Kuai Liang like that. But that had been Dimitri's purpose all along. He wanted all the other boys to be angry at him, maybe even rough him up a little, in order to keep him from screwing up again. But Jiao-long wouldn't quit glaring when they rest of the class did, and Bi-han knew he was going to have to keep an extra close eye on his brother tonight.

After study time finished, Bi-han was walking through an empty hall on his way to supper when he heard wicked laughter followed by the sound of pottery breaking. A few dull thuds followed, and then the Cryomancer heard his brother shout "Leave me alone!" before a loud punch silenced him. Immediately, he took off running towards the scuffle. Not surprisingly, he found Kuai Liang in a side corridor, held on either side by Bomani and Shen, with Jiao-long punching him in the face and gut. Instant fury flooded him.

"Let him go!" Bi-han yelled.

Jiao-long whirled around. "Oh, look, big brother's here to rescue his kid sister." His cronies laughed. Oniro's son motioned for them to release the boy. Kuai Liang immediately ran to his older brother, and the teenager promptly noticed the torrent of blood streaming from the boy's broken nose. Cold, raging fire consumed him as he pushed the bleary-eyed child behind him and raised his fists.

"_Nobody_ messes with my brother but me," he hissed as he stalked closer to the bullies.

"I can do what I want," Jiao-long sneered.

"Yeah? So can I!"

With that, Bi-han took a swing at his enemy, and caught him directly in the jaw. The red-clad teenager stumbled backwards into the wall, but quickly came back with his own punch, and he caught the Cryomancer in the eye socket. Blue and white stars filled his vision as loud, stinging pain flooded his cheek. But, he was undeterred. He lunged at Jiao-long's middle, and easily tackled him. The other cried out in surprise as he straddled him and started punching him ferociously in the face with crazed screams. Then he gripped a handful of his enemy's hair and used it to thump his skull into the hard, tile floor. Finally, when he raised his ice-charged fist, summoning a swirling ball to his palm to freeze Jiao-long, someone grabbed him by the scruff of the neck and threw him backwards. It was An Zhi.

"Enough!" the Master cried. He struck Bi-han across the face, knocking him to the floor. "Are you stupid, boy?" he demanded to know as Bomani and Shen helped a profusely-bleeding Jiao-long to his feet. "Attacking the Grandmaster's son like that?"

"But Father, look what he did to Kuai Liang!" the teenager protested.

"Your brother needs to learn to take care of himself," the Cryomancer replied with a sinister glare. "If he can't defend himself against his aggressors, then let his wounds be his teacher."

"But-"

"I don't want to hear it, Bi-han," he interrupted. "Now get out of here. All of you."

"Yes, Father," he said, rubbing the spot where An Zhi hit him. He got to his feet.

"Yes, Master," Jiao-long said.

"Yes, Father," Kuai Liang said, though with his broken nose, it sounded like "Yeth, Favver."

Both Cryomancers skipped dinner in lieu of going to the healers to fix the boy's nose. When that unpleasant business was taken care of, the teenager decided to help clean up his brother, so they went to the community bathroom closest to their room. Bi-han immediately lifted Kuai Liang up and set him on the sprawling sink and quickly soaked a washcloth. Then he gripped his little brother's cheek in his hand, tilted it towards him, and set about wiping the blood from his face.

"You're an absolute mess," he told him. The kid flinched as he touched his purple nose.

"You should talk," Kuai Liang shot back in a nasal voice. "Look at you."

Bi-han looked in the mirror. His eye, he suddenly realized, was swollen nearly shut and shaded an angry color of red and purple. He scoffed and then smiled faintly at his brother. "It's a badge of honor," he said in all sincerity. He was proud to have earned the bruise. "I meant what I said. Nobody is allowed to mess with you except me." He tousled Kuai Liang's hair before he rinsed out the washcloth in the basin. Then he started dabbing away blood once more.

"I'm sorry you always get in trouble because of me, Bi-han," the boy said softly. "I'm sorry you hate me."

"I don't hate you," he replied.

"But you said-"

"I know what I said, and I was angry, okay? So just drop it."

"But-"

"I _said_ drop it." He finished cleaning his brother's face and smirked. "Look, you have raccoon eyes," he told him.

Kuai Liang's face lit up and he looked in the mirror to see. Two perfect purplish-black circles formed around his eyes. "Cool!" he cried. "I can't wait to show Tomas. Think they'll stay like that? I think that'd be awesome if they did. Then I could go around looking all mysterious."

Bi-han rolled his eyes and laughed. "You're such a weirdo." He threw the washcloth in a large laundry receptacle. "Come on, you hungry?"

The boy shook his head no and then slid off the sink. "I missed study time, remember? I still have a mountain of work to do for Sifu Dimitri."

The teenaged Cryomancer draped an arm over his brother's shoulder and led him from the bathroom towards the dining hall. For such a rotten brat, Kuai Liang was a good kid. "Well, don't worry about that. I'll help you. It's what I'm here for." He paused a moment, then gently yanked his brother's hair to tilt his head up. The boy stared at him with large, blue eyes. "Pest," he said, smiling.


	4. Jablecny Kolac

**NOW**

"Quit touching me with that," Kuai Liang snapped as Tomas stretched his arm over the pile of potatoes and pointed his peeler at him. It came within a hair of touching his nose.

"I'm not touching you," the eleven-year-old Czech boy replied matter-of-factly, "I'm just holding it in my hand." He loved his friend like a brother, but sometimes, he just couldn't take a joke. And it seemed the older he got, the less fun he got as well, so Tomas would be lying if he said he didn't enjoy annoying the younger nine-year-old just a tad bit.

"Get it away from my face," the youngest Cryomancer retorted as he carefully scraped the peel off a potato. His movements were slow, undoubtedly because his back was still sore from the whipping An Zhi gave him earlier. Tomas' own back smarted as well from the same whipping, the welts stinging and burning and making it difficult to move. He ignored his friend's commandment and held the peeler straight at Kuai Liang's nose until his friend's blue eyes flashed with anger.

"I'm not touching you," he said in a sing-song voice.

Immediately, the other slapped his hand away and knocked the tool from his palm. Then he said, "Tomas, I've been thinking about all the trouble we get into together. Do you know what I think?"

"Uh, not really-"

"I think I'm crazy."

"How so?"

"Why else would I let you keep talking me into stuff that gets me beat? Why would I do that? Honestly?"

"You never complained before. You've had just as much fun as I've had, Kuai Liang."

"That's beside the point," he argued. "And I don't complain."

"Really? Because you sound like a girl right now."

"I don't complain, Tomas. When do I complain about how you always stick me with your chores? Or how your pigsty always finds its way to my side of the room? Or that you always steal my clothes to pull pranks on Jiao-long?"

"Hey, that's a worthy cause, you've got to admit."

"When do I complain about you blowing up a smoke bomb in our room?"

"You thought that was funny!"

"_Whatever_," Kuai Liang grumbled. "When do I complain about you waking me up in the middle of the night to make _pie_?"

"Also a worthy cause," Tomas insisted.

"Oh, really? Look where we're at. We're stuck peeling a mountain of potatoes, my father beat us, and we have nothing to show for it. Where's the pie, Tomas? We should've at least gotten pie for this."

"We had fun. Doesn't that count?"

"I want pie!" he yelled. He shot his best friend an angry glare that sent chills down his spine. Kuai Liang had never tasted pie before. It wasn't exactly on the Lin Kuei's list of approved foods because it was a luxury and therefore their natural enemy. Tomas actually felt bad for their failed attempt to make _jablecny kolac_, a type of apple pie from the Czech Republic. It was one of the most wonderful things in the world, and he'd thoroughly convinced the young Cryomancer of this fact until he had the boy practically drooling in hunger. Tomas felt slightly responsible for this unfortunate turn of events.

**FOUR HOURS AGO**

"Hey, Kuai Liang, you awake?" Tomas whispered as he shook his friend. The boy had made a cocoon around him from the one sackcloth blanket he owned, and he was snoring softly as he lay half-curled in a ball on his mat. On the other side of the room, Bi-han snored loudly, a heavy sleeper. It sure made it easier to sneak out at night. When the youngest boy didn't wake up, Tomas shook him again, repeating the question.

Slowly, Kuai Liang rolled over and sat up. "I am now," he said tiredly, rubbing his blue eyes. "What do you want, Tomas?"

"We've got stuff to do," he said. "Come on."

"Go back to bed you Czechoslovakian Q-tip." He yawned and curled under his blanket once more.

"Quit being a girl," the other teased. "I'm hungry."

"You're _always_ hungry."

"Yeah, but tonight I'm hungry for _jablecny kolac_."

It was true. He'd been in the temple for four years now, and although he didn't miss life on the streets in Prague, he _did_ miss that tasty dessert. Back in the Czech Republic, there was a woman, a baker named Ilsa, who took pity on the little boy who ate scraps of food from the dumpsters to survive. She invited Tomas into her shop one evening after closing, and she fed him a hearty piece of the pie, which was almost too pretty to eat. Ilsa had decorated the top with thin scallops of apple, and sprinkled it with powdered sugar. It was like biting into Heaven, a sweet, apple-y Heaven. After that, she grew so fond of Tomas that she fed him pastries whenever he wished, but her _jablecny kolac _was his favorite. And after years of being deprived of it, he thought he could make one on his own.

"Where are you gonna get that in the middle of the night?" Kuai Liang whispered tiredly.

"We're gonna make it," he said. On the opposite side of the room, Bi-han snorted, coughed, and then rolled onto his belly with a loud groan. His snoring then resumed.

"Now who's the girl?" the younger boy growled as he pulled his blanket over his head.

"Come on!"

"Go away!"

Tomas thought about it. "If you don't come with me now, I'm gonna start singing."

Kuai Liang's blanket flopped down. "Don't you dare," he hissed.

"Are you gonna come?"

"No!"

"Okay, you asked for it." The Czech boy opened his mouth and started singing the most annoying song in the world, a ditty they both learned from Hydro one day when he took them to the market in Tingri: "I'm Henry the Eighth I am, I am, Henry the Eighth I am, I got married to the widow next door-"

"Oh, all right!" Kuai Liang cried softly so as to not wake his brother. He kicked off his blankets and then kicked Tomas in the ribs for good measure.

"Ow!" he yelped as his friend pulled on his blue t-shirt.

"You do realize that if we're caught out of bed, we're dead meat, right?"

"When has _that_ ever stopped us?" he countered as he silently opened the door and slipped out with his friend in tow. Tomas looked at Kuai Liang in the dim candlelight of the hallway, noticing now his disheveled hair. The front looked reasonably straight, but the back was matted and stuck up like a rooster's tail. He smirked. "Nice hair," he chided.

The youngest Cryomancer promptly punched him in the arm. His muscles tightened around the instant charlie-horse. "Nice frog," the other hissed back as Tomas sucked in a pained breath and rubbed the pulsing spasm from his tricep.

The two boys crept silently towards the kitchens. Barefoot, they made no sound as they walked. At this hour, roughly three A.M., it was extraordinarily quiet with nearly everyone asleep in bed, and those who weren't asleep stood on guard duty on the parapets outside. When Tomas and Kuai Liang reached their chosen destination, there were no slaves in sight to interfere with them.

"Okay, so what do we do first?" the younger of the two asked.

Tomas tried to remember how Ilsa made her _jablecny kolac_. He knew she rolled the crust out first. "We start with the crust," he explained. He immediately pulled a large five pound bag of flour from the giant walk-in pantry. "Get some eggs!" he whispered.

Half-asleep, Kuai Liang shrugged and obeyed. He promptly raided the old-fashioned ice box and found nearly two dozen brown hen eggs inside. "How many do you want?" he yawned.

"All of them!"

The young Cryomancer rolled his eyes and carefully gathered them in his arms. "Are you sure about this?" he asked as he balanced his way towards the worktable Tomas staked out. "That seems like an awful lot of eggs for one pie."

"Between the two of us, who's actually had pie and who hasn't?"

Kuai Liang frowned. "Tomas, I don't know if that means you know what you're doing."

"Yeah, I know you don't know," he replied. "That's why I'm in charge."

"But don't you have a recipe or something?"

"What do I need a recipe for?"

The Cryomancer flashed him a disbelieving look. "For directions," he said.

"I don't need those. I've seen it made enough times."

"But all those times, did you actually make it?"

Annoyance surged through Tomas' heart. He frowned. "Will you just shut up already? I know what I'm doing!"

Kuai Liang rolled his eyes and then leaned against the table with his chin resting on his upturned palms. "Whatever," he sighed. His eyelids drooped.

Tomas quickly found a gigantic wooden bowl stashed in the far corner. It was deep enough that either he or his best friend could curl up inside. Immediately, he dumped the entire bag of flour into it. Then he looked at the Cryomancer, who was trying to doze off where he stood. "Come on, Kuai Liang!" he cried. "We need to start cracking eggs."

His friend handed him some eggs, and then began smashing his while half asleep. "Tomas, I'm tired," he complained. "You know my father made me and Bi-han do two hours of extra calisthenics tonight for arguing. I want to go back to bed."

"It'll be worth it, trust me," he said, not worrying about the stray bits of shell that found their way into the flour. "_Jablecny kolac_ is the best." Tomas started stirring the batter with a large spoon.

The younger boy wrinkled his nose as he looked at the concoction. "It doesn't look like it to me," he replied. "It looks like a giant spit wad. Gross."

"It won't look that way after it's cooked," the other told him. He shook his head. His best friend was such a pessimist.

"But it's so thick," he protested as he scooped a small blob of dough with his finger. "Is it supposed to be like this?"

He had a point. Tomas hemmed and hawed. "Go get me a quart of milk," he ordered. "That should loosen it up. And get some apples and start cutting them."

Kuai Liang shuffled off and returned in a moment with the requested items, plus a knife to slice the apples. Tomas added the milk to his mixture, but it sloshed around the stiff ball at the center of the bowl. Determined to get it smooth, he beat the dough harder until his own arm grew sore from the motion. It didn't get smooth, but rather gluey and full of smaller chunks of unincorporated flour. The globs didn't bother him, though. They gave the dough a more rustic feel.

When he was finally satisfied with his batter, he looked for some pie tins to no avail. There just weren't any to be had in the Lin Kuei kitchens. Tomas wasn't particularly surprised. So he grudgingly settled on a rectangular baking sheet, and then found a rolling pin to shape the dough. He worked beside Kuai Liang silently, fighting with his mixture. Somehow, it was hard, yet it still clung tenaciously to the tabletop. He couldn't get it quite as flat as Ilsa had years ago, but that didn't bother him either. He simply laid his slab, which was approximately two inches thick, over the pan.

"How are those apples coming?" he asked his friend.

The Cryomancer shrugged. "Okay, I guess," he said as he carefully chopped the apples into quarters. He hadn't peeled them though. But Tomas thought that was okay. The skins would give them extra vitamins, he knew. There was no reason such a tasty dessert had to be completely unhealthy, after all. When he was finished slicing the fruit, Tomas immediately dumped the diced apples into his crust, evoking yet another astonished look from Kuai Liang. "Shouldn't you put sugar and spices in that?" his friend asked.

"Oh, you're right!" he said. "I nearly forgot."

Tomas promptly found some sticky brown sugar, but no cinnamon or nutmeg. Probably two more enemies of the Lin Kuei. Well, without the spices, it wouldn't taste quite the same. But with a little bit of sugar, it'd be close enough. He made a heaping mound of brown sugar in the middle of his pie before he spread it over the apples, coating his own fingers in the dark granules. Then he carefully covered his _jablecny kolac_ with the other crust, also a couple inches thick. Finally, he placed his heavy pan on the rack suspended over the fire.

"How long does it need to cook for?" Kuai Liang asked as he watched his friend set the pan in the fire.

"I remember it took a couple of hours to cook," Tomas explained.

"Man!" the Cryomancer whined. "I want to go back to bed."

"Well, while we're waiting, why don't you take a nap on those big sacks of rice?" he replied, pointing to a mound of gunnysacks propped against the far wall. "They're close to the fire so you'll stay warm."

"All right," he said. "But what are you gonna do?"

"I'll join you," he said. "I'm a little tired now myself." It was true. His manic energy was rapidly fading. He quickly set the timer, and then followed his friend to the sacks of rice, claiming one sack a few feet from Kuai Liang's. His best friend was instantly asleep, and it wasn't long before he was too.

A short time later, he heard his friend call his name. "Tomas, wake up!"

"Huh? What?" he said drowsily, not wanting to wake up. He ignored the Cryomancer.

Suddenly, he felt a swift kick to his hip. The pain jarred him awake, and he came up swinging. "What was that for?" he yelled as his vision cleared and he looked at his friend, who was wide-eyed in annoyance and panic.

"Moron!" Kuai Liang yelled. "The pie's on fire!"

Tomas immediately leapt to his feet, now noticing the thick cloud of black smoke wafting through the kitchen. In the hearth, he vaguely saw his _jablecny kolac_ engulfed in orange flames. The acrid smell filled his nostrils as the smoke bit at his eyes and forced out tears. "Oh no!" he exclaimed. He now heard the alarm bell ding loudly from the courtyard.

"The smoke went through the temple!" the Cryomancer shouted. "They're gonna come in here and find us."

"No way. Come on, we're getting out of here!"

"But what about the pie?"

"Let them deal with it," he said. "Like you said, they're coming anyway."

He ducked out of the kitchen with his friend in tow. Both darted behind a statue of Attila the Hun a moment before a troupe of assassins, led by Sifu Hydro, saw them. Oniro and Jiao-long tiredly followed them. Tomas and Kuai Liang waited until they were certain everyone had passed, and then the Cryomancer left the safety of the statue. But Tomas, however, worried about the beating he'd get if he was caught, made himself invisible.

He felt bad when his friend whirled around to make sure he was following, saw he'd vanished, and panicked. "Tomas? Tomas!"

"Kuai Liang, what are you doing out of bed?" a new voice demanded to know. Suddenly, An Zhi stepped into view.

"Uh, I…I…I…" he stuttered in response. _Poor kid_, Tomas thought. He was always terrified of his father. Kids shouldn't have to live in fear of their parents like that. He felt kind of guilty for throwing his friend under the bus like that, but better one of them take the heat rather than both.

Tomas started to creep by, but An Zhi immediately reached out and grabbed him by the scruff of his neck. "Where do you think you're going, Tomas?" he demanded to know.

The boy reappeared. "How'd you know I was here?" he asked.

"Are you kidding me?" the Master sneered. "You're breathing so loudly a _deaf_ man could hear you. That gift of yours will do you no good if you can't learn to be quiet."

Hydro emerged from the kitchen. "It looks like _someone_, or should I say _someones_, were trying to bake a pie," he reported. "But it caught on fire. That's where all the smoke came from. The men are opening doors and windows to air the temple out, and I extinguished the fire."

"Baking?" An Zhi sneered at the two boys. "Are you both aspiring to be women?"

While Kuai Liang shook his head no, Tomas frowned. "Well, if the adults ever let us eat anything good, we wouldn't have to sneak around to make a pie in the middle of the night."

His best friend elbowed him. "Tomas, _shut up_!"

"I thought I was raising young men," the eldest Cryomancer began, ignoring his sass. "Evidently, I was raising two little girls."

The Czech boy looked at Kuai Liang, who now had a wounded expression on his face. He didn't think anything of being called names by the bully of a man, but he knew his friend still wanted his father to care about him, and such hurtful words cut him to the very core of his being. He looked back at An Zhi. "You're a _voleh_," he swore at the man. Ordinarily, he didn't like to curse for fear of getting beat or worse, but times like these called for such words.

The Master Cryomancer sneered. "You two girls come with me," he growled.

**NOW**

After An Zhi whipped them both, he assigned them to work in the kitchen for the slaves, starting with peeling a mountain of potatoes for stew for dinner. As the Tibetan women worked close by, keeping an eye on the two boys, Tomas and Kuai Liang fulfilled their punishment just outside the back door. The middle of winter, and dawn, it was fairly frigid. The Czech boy didn't like how angry his friend was towards him. The other, his cheeks tomato red in fury, seethed in quiet anger. Tomas thought he could use some sleep.

"Hey, Kuai Liang, I know what will cheer you up," he said.

"You mean, besides going back in time to that moment when you decided to wake me up, but at the last second didn't?" the other hissed.

Tomas thought about responding with his own snarky remark, but he sincerely felt bad for making his friend angry with him, so he stifled it. Instead, he grabbed a potato peel and flung it at him. He chuckled when it landed in the Cryomancer's hair, which still resembled a rooster's tail.

"Knock it off," the other snapped.

But he ignored his friend and threw another peel.

"I'm not playing with you," Kuai Liang growled.

Again, Tomas threw a peel.

"Alright, you asked for it!" With that, the younger boy threw the potato he held as hard as he could at his friend. It hit his chest with a painful thud, and he yelped before he threw a potato back. His harmlessly bounced off Kuai Liang's leg, causing his friend to laugh at him.

"You throw like a girl!" he teased.

Tomas narrowed his eyes. "I'll show you!" He grabbed another potato, but this time he injected it with his special powers over smoke, and threw it like a grenade at his friend's feet. Before the Cryomancer could react, it exploded, raining bits of potato over both of them while encircling his friend with smoke and launching him into the air. In a second, Kuai Liang crashed into a nearby snow bank.

"No fair, Tomas!" he yelped, sputtering snow from his mouth. He quickly wiped his face with his coat sleeve. "You're not allowed to use your powers!"

"Mememememememe" he mocked with a grin, making a talking mouth gesture with his hand.

"Alright, fine! You wanna use powers? Let's use our powers!" With that, the Cryomancer scooped up a large ball of snow and packed it into a hard ball. Then, for an added touch, he formed a coat of ice around it before he lobbed it at his friend, catching him directly in the shoulder. Kuai Liang started giggling as it knocked him into the mountain of potatoes, and the whole mound rolled on top of him with a multitude of dull thuds.

Tomas flailed about, losing his footing as the vegetables rolled beneath his feet, but he was grateful when he felt a small hand grip his and yank him up. He saw his younger friend smiling at him. His anger had clearly passed. "Truce?" the younger boy asked.

He grinned. "Truce." He rubbed his hands together to warm them. "Come on, let's get this done. I'm freezing my butt off." He grabbed his peeler and sat on his stool once more, with Kuai Liang following suit.

"It's not _that _bad out here," he said. The younger boy resumed his work once more.

"Says the kid who can make ice out of thin air," Tomas chided. A new thought occurred to him. He couldn't help it. He aimed his potato peeler at his friend's nose.

"Quit touching me with that!" Kuai Liang cried in exasperation.

"I'm not touching you," Tomas sang as the first rays of dawn broke over the horizon.


	5. Worth a Thousand Words

Kuai Liang knew he was dreaming, but even still he panted heavily as his snow boots crunched on the gravel beneath him, and he gazed at the summit above with a smile. He was halfway to the top of the mountain. Everest. He started to hike again, ignoring the brutal wind and cold at this altitude, when something suddenly shoved him.

Kuai Liang fell right back to his room in the Lin Kuei temple. With an irritated groan, he rubbed his sleepy eyes and looked at the face lingering above him. When his vision cleared, he saw his brother wearing an uncharacteristic smile on his face. "Bi-han?" he asked in confusion as he sat up. Tomas' copy of _The Art of War_ fluttered to the floor from his chest. He must've dozed off reading. His father, An Zhi, kept him up late the night before practicing his backflips.

"Come on, dork!" his older brother urged. "Tomas is waiting for us outside."

"Where are we going?"

"Tingri."

His brother didn't need to say anything else. The younger Cryomancer immediately kicked off his rucksack blanket and scrambled to his feet. He wanted to know what was so special in the tiny village that it warranted a trip in the middle of the week. Usually, such expeditions waited until the weekend. Kuai Liang was used to Tomas' hair-brained ideas, but if his best friend had convinced Bi-han to partake in the shenanigans, it had to be something good.

"What's in Tingri?" he asked.

"You'll see," his brother replied with an ornery smirk.

Kuai Liang quickly pulled on his tabi boots and followed Bi-han out of their room. The halls were predictably empty – at this time of day most of the men were patrolling and most of the boys were studying in their dorms – but even still the brothers both crept quietly and discreetly towards the kitchens where the stairs to the basement were located. In the basement was the boiler room, and in the boiler room was the Cryomancers' passage to freedom, via a drain large enough to walk through. The boys had almost reached it when an obnoxious voice cut through the silence.

"Where do you two idiots think you're going?" Jiao-long asked loudly.

Kuai Liang jumped a mile into the air as Bi-han whirled around to face him. The younger of the two instinctively stepped closer to his brother but put his hands up like the other to defend himself. "It's none of your business," he snapped.

"I'll bet my father would _love_ to hear how his least favorite people were sneaking around. _Again_. Shouldn't you two be reading or something right now? You're both losers like that."

"Why? Because we don't need pictures like you?" Kuai Liang shot back.

"Cute, Kuai Lame," Jiao-long sneered. "Did you stay up all night thinking of that? Oh, wait, you couldn't have. You were too busy doing drills for your father because you suck at fighting."

"What do you want?" Bi-han growled.

"I want to know how you plan on buying my silence," the Grandmaster's son replied.

"I don't," the older Cryomancer said flatly. Kuai Liang smiled faintly, proud of his big brother. Bi-han was the only boy in the temple who refused to be intimidated by Jiao-long.

"Then how do you expect me to keep quiet?"

"Like this." With that, Bi-han unexpectedly fired a jet of ice at Jiao-long's feet and froze him to the floor in an instant. Before the bully could react, Kuai Liang was behind him, gripping his shoulder with his palm and pumping ice into his blood. He chuckled softly as Oniro's son passed out immediately and crumpled to the floor in a heap.

"Nice job, little brother," Bi-han congratulated him as he approached. He tousled Kuai Liang's messy brown hair. "You read my mind. I'm proud of you."

"Thanks, Bi-han," he said, beaming. He loved it when his brother praised him. It was always a great gift. Now he looked at Jiao-long's unconscious form on the wooden floor. "What are we gonna do with him? He can't stay here. He'll blab that we've snuck out."

"You two gits won't be sneaking out today," a new voice said behind them as powerful hands clamped on both boys' shoulders. The accent that dripped from it was British: Sifu Hydro.

"Master," Kuai Liang stammered as he looked up at the rotund man in fear. The man scowled at him, so he stole a glance at his brother. Bi-han was, annoyingly enough, grinning. "What's so funny?" he snapped.

"Your face," the seventeen-year-old replied as he and Hydro both burst out laughing. Kuai Liang looked back and forth at them in confusion.

Hydro, seeing his growing frustration, patted him on the back and said, "I'm taking you to Tingri. That way, the Grandmaster won't get upset with you for taking off."

Kuai Liang frowned. "But Sifu, won't _you _get in trouble with the Grandmaster?" he asked.

"Don't worry about it, you silly donkey," the other replied somewhat affectionately. "Let's go. Leave him be." He nodded to Jiao-long's unconscious form on the floor. And then he motioned for the boys to follow him through the front gate.

"What took you guys so long?" Tomas asked when they left the Lin Kuei stronghold and found the boy leaning against a tree.

"Just taking out some trash, that's all," Bi-han said as he exchanged a knowing grin with his brother. As the four walked towards the village, Kuai Liang explained what had happened.

"And I missed it?" the twelve-year-old asked. "Now we have to go back."

"Forget it, you Czechoslovakian Q-tip," Bi-han said. "I don't want a beating. Not today."

"What's today?" Kuai Liang asked.

"The day we finally sacrifice you to the Yeti," Tomas joked as he pushed his best friend's shoulder. "Maybe he'll have mercy on you, though, and turn you into his special pet. Maybe he can love you, and pet you, and call you George." He, Bi-han, and Hydro burst out laughing, and Kuai Liang's cheeks burned red with humiliation.

"Shut up, Tomas!" the younger boy yelled as he pushed his friend back. The Czech boy stumbled to the side, realized what had happened, then laughed as he shoved him again. This ticked off the Cryomancer even more, who added a kick to his push. The scuffle quickly escalated into a fight, and it would've progressed even farther had Hydro not calmly stepped between the two younger children, grabbed them both by their ears, and pried them apart.

"Knock it off, you unruly idjits," he snapped as they squealed in pain. "There's Tingri."

Kuai Liang indeed saw the village. It was a small town, and it had some modern conveniences like running water and a few cars. But generally, it was a primitive place free from civilization. Yaks and goats mingled with pedestrians in the cobblestone streets. Hydro let both boys' ears go before he pushed them forward.

The people in Tingri knew about the Lin Kuei temple not far from them, and so they immediately recognized the man and three boys who walked into their village in their black uniforms. That is why they made it a point to steer clear of them; the clan had tyrannically ruled the region for 500 years, and the people of Tingri were terrified of them. Kuai Liang saw a group of boys his age playing some kind of ball game in the road into town, but his heart sagged into his chest when he waved to them, and in response they snatched their ball and ran away. His head drooped and he sighed.

Bi-han promptly patted his back and said, "Don't worry, little brother. We're gonna do something better than play with some stupid kids."

"Yeah, you'll see," Tomas added with a smile. He looked at Hydro. "Can I tell him where we're going?"

Their Master nodded. "Ain't no harm now, I suppose."

"What? Where are we going?" the youngest boy asked eagerly.

"To see Xiao-Ping."

Kuai Liang's spirits immediately lifted. Xiao-Ping, the kindly shop owner, was the only man in Tingri who was nice to the Lin Kuei boys. The Cryomancer suddenly felt the urge to run like the wind. "Come on!" he yelled as he took off towards the shop like a bolt. "What are you waiting for? An invitation?"

The boys quickly reached Xiao-Ping's humble shop which was situated on the other edge of town and adjoined to his hut. Soon Hydro joined them. Kuai Liang started to go into the store, but Bi-han abruptly grabbed his arm and stopped him. "Not today," the seventeen-year-old said when his younger brother regarded him with puzzlement. "Today, he wants us to visit his house."

"What for?"

"It's a special occasion."

Kuai Liang furrowed his brow. "What are you talking about, Bi-han?"

"It's your birthday, dork."

Realization dawned on the boy. He had forgotten. Every year, Bi-han had always insisted on reminding him of the day because the Lin Kuei had no time for such celebrations. It annoyed his older brother, who still remembered a time in his life when parents threw their kids parties and who gave them presents after they'd fed them sumptuous cake. The fact that Kuai Liang only knew of birthdays in an abstract sense angered the older Cryomancer, so he made it a point to tell him 'Happy Birthday' whenever July 13th rolled around, and he even gave him a rare hug. But without his usual reminder, the boy assumed it was just another day.

Tomas broke out into laughter as they walked towards Xiao-Ping's door. "You're really thick, Kuai Liang. Only _you_ could forget it was your birthday." Like Bi-han, the Czech boy knew firsthand about such celebrations of life, and like Bi-han, he missed them.

"There you are!" Xiao-Ping cried as he emerged from his hut. Even though the structure was small, it was neat. In the back, Kuai Liang knew, there was a large yard attached to the house, and it was where they put their goat, Oniro. The young Cryomancer thought it hilarious that the merchant named his goat after the Lin Kuei Grandmaster; Xiao-Ping made no bones about his dislike for the man. Kuai Liang was always in perpetual awe of the old man's rebellious defiance.

"I was beginning to wonder if you were coming," the Tibetan man continued. "Thought your father might've stopped you." He wiped his hands on his threadbare apron.

"Nah, he's on a mission," Bi-han said. "He left at dawn."

"Yeah, and Sifu Hydro covered for us," Tomas added as he nodded towards their Master.

Xiao-Ping bowed respectfully to Hydro, and the British man returned the gesture. "It's good to see you, Halsey," he said. "I don't see you nearly enough either. Can't you bring these boys around to see me more often?"

"Hell no," he said. "Don't want them gettin' spoiled or fat from eatin' your candy."

Kuai Liang listened with an amused smile as Xiao-Ping wrapped an arm around his shoulder and pulled him towards the house. The others followed closely, and when they stepped over the threshold, they were met with the aroma of meat simmering in gravy. The merchant's wife, Asman, and his teenage daughters, Sabira and Bayarmaa, were huddled around the tiny wood stove, throwing herbs and spices into a pot full of bubbling brown stew.

"Mother," Anil, Xiao-Ping's oldest son at age twenty, said. "They're here." The man, a younger copy of his father, smiled at the guests and nodded as they entered.

Asman, a short, slender woman with breasts that sagged to her belly through her shirt, now saw them and immediately left her cooking to greet them. "Look at these handsome boys!" she squealed as she pulled Tomas to her and squeezed. As he gasped for air, she planted a kiss on his cheek. "You're getting so tall," she told him before she let him go and yanked on Bi-han's black shirt. "You too," she said as she pulled his head to her with both hands cupped around his cheeks. Now she planted an even bigger kiss on his forehead.

"Hello, Asman," he greeted. Kuai Liang saw him glance over at Sabira, supposedly the prettiest sixteen-year-old girl in town. Well, that was according to Bi-han. The younger brother had his doubts. But now, when Bi-han looked at her, his cheeks flushed red with embarrassment and it was Kuai Liang's turn to smirk at his brother's expense.

"You're getting more handsome every day, a fine young man," the merchant's wife told him as she brushed back his spiky black hair with her hands. "I think you'd make a good husband to Sabira someday, or maybe even Bayarmaa."

Tomas snorted and Kuai Liang clamped his hand over his mouth to keep the giggles contained. His older brother's face instantly went white as a sheet as he started to stammer incoherently at the blunt statements.

"Asman, hush now," Xiao-Ping intervened with a smile. "You're embarrassing him. Besides, you haven't even said hello to our guest of honor."

Kuai Liang beamed. He liked that phrase, 'guest of honor.' It made him feel special. He silently played with the phrase on his tongue, feeling the pleasant way the words formed themselves in his mouth. And as soon as the merchant spoke it, Asman had wheeled on him with a grin that refused to be contained. She immediately grabbed him by the wrist and yanked him into her, hugging him as tightly as she'd hugged Tomas. His face felt lost between her old-lady breasts, and he felt decidedly awkward as she planted kisses all over his head. When she finally released him, she tousled his already messy hair.

"And _you_, my precious little ice dragon," she began as she knelt before him, taking his hands into hers. "We've planned a little party for your birthday. I made my _tsamthuk_ for our supper and _dharamshala _for dessert."

"Gee, thanks, Asman," Kuai Liang said politely. He'd tasted her _tsamthuk_ soup, a type of stew made with yak meat, and didn't like it. But because he didn't want to hurt her feelings, he had pretended to love it. So now, it seemed like every time he saw her, she wanted to feed it to him. Today, however, he refused to feel disgusted by the menu; the Tibetan woman had clearly gone to a lot of trouble just for him, and he was grateful because it was more than anyone in the Lin Kuei had done. Well, besides his brother, best friend, and mentor that was.

"Where are the other kids?" Tomas asked. Xiao-Ping's other children – Narayan, Taja, Hadiya, Sonam, and Fareiba – were relatively close in age to him and Kuai Liang, so when the boys ventured to Tingri, they often played with them.

"They're out in the pen milking Oniro," Xiao-Ping answered.

"You boys can go help them while the girls and I finish up our supper," Asman suggested.

Both Tomas and Kuai Liang looked hopefully to Sifu Hydro for permission. He nodded to them and said, "Go ahead."

"Yes!" they said as one. But then the birthday boy looked at his brother. "You coming, Bi-han?"

"No, I'm gonna stay here with the adults," he replied as his eyes drifted ever-so-slightly to Sabira.

Tomas and Kuai Liang exchanged an amused glance, and the latter snickered. "Okay, suit yourself." With that, the best friends bolted out the front door and ran around the house to the back. As expected, they found the Tibetan children in the pen with the goat. But instead of milking it like Xiao-Ping had said, Narayan, a twelve-year-old boy with a shaved scalp and almond shaped eyes, was sitting astride it and holding onto its white and brown fur for dear life. It didn't help. Oniro bucked him into a short wooden fence post.

"Look!" Fareiba, the youngest girl, yelled happily at her siblings when she saw the Lin Kuei boys approaching. "It's Tomas and Kuai Liang."

When the other children spotted the boys approaching, Taja, the eleven-year-old girl with hair twisted into a messy braid, nudged her sister, Hadiya. The latter, in turn, blushed and edged behind Taja timidly. It was nothing new. She always did it when the boys visited the family. So the two of them just always assumed she was terribly quiet and shy.

"Hello," she said nervously, her voice barely audible. "Happy Birthday, Kuai Liang."

"Thanks," he said as he climbed onto the wooden fence surrounding the pen and sat on the top rail.

"Kuai Liang, Tomas," Narayan said, "do you want a turn?"

"Depends," Tomas replied. "What are you doing?"

"Trying to ride Oniro. But she's being very stubborn and obnoxious today. She keeps throwing us off her back."

"Why are you trying to ride a goat?" the Czech boy raised an eyebrow. "That's dumb."

"No, it's not, it's fun."

"How?" he challenged. "She's locked in a pen barely bigger than her. Let her into the rest of the yard and then we'll talk."

"Papa doesn't want her out of her pen," Sonam, the youngest boy in the family, announced as he looked at his older brother. "She'll tear through the outer fence."

"If she's left alone in the yard she would," Narayan responded. "But Tomas has a point."

"But Narayan," Taja started.

"How much trouble could she be?" Tomas asked. "It's not like we're gonna let her run out of here. There's seven of us and one of her."

"Um, Tomas-" Kuai Liang started but was interrupted.

"Hey, you could ride her first!" his best friend suggested as he clapped him on the back.

"But I don't want to ride a goat," he replied.

"Who all thinks Kuai Liang should be the first to ride Oniro around the yard?" Tomas asked the Tibetan children. "Let's take a vote. Everyone raise their hand if you think he should." Naturally, everyone raised their hand. The Czech boy looked at his best friend. "That settles it. Ride 'em, cowboy."

"No way," he argued, thinking of his notoriously clumsy luck.

"What, are you scared?"

The youngest Cryomancer bristled at the suggestion. "Of course not!" he scoffed.

"Then get on," Tomas ordered with his trademark ornery smile. "Show Oniro who's boss!"

Kuai Liang sighed and against his better judgment, climbed onto Oniro's back as Narayan opened the pen gate. He barely had time to grip her short, coarse fur before she raced from her pen with an angry bleat. "Whoa!" he yelped as his fingers loosened and she lowered her head and horns. Suddenly, he realized that the ewe meant to ram the outer fence. "Stop!" he yelled at her, but she ignored him. Behind him, he heard Tomas and Narayan giggle hysterically while the girls squealed in simultaneous fear and delight.

Just before Oniro ran into the wooden beams, she abruptly stopped. Kuai Liang, who now dug his fingers into her fur in stark terror, flailed forward and slammed his face into the back of her skull with a loud crack. Stars filled his vision as blinding pain spread through his head. He groaned, but barely had time to think about it before the crazed goat was racing towards the other children. He yelled and flinched in fear as his friends screamed and dove to either side of Oniro's path just before she rammed them. With another disgruntled bleat, she charged on with the Cryomancer on her back.

"Tomas, I'm gonna kill you!" he hollered as he and the goat passed his best friend. The Czech boy was beet red and doubled over from laughing so hard.

"You should see your face!" the other cried as he collapsed onto his knees and started pounding the ground with his fists.

But Kuai Liang didn't see that. He only saw a four-foot-tall fence rapidly growing in his sight with no signs of Oniro slowing. Quickly, his eyes focused on the highest rail as he suddenly imagined his face plowing into a spot right in front of him. And even before it made contact, the boy knew it was going to hurt. Bad. Just before impact, the suicidal goat picked up speed, and the youngest Cryomancer involuntarily let go of her fur to shield his flinching face. _Thud!_

Suddenly, Kuai Liang was airborne. His arms and legs flailed beneath him, and he watched as he cleared the fence and gradually rolled onto his back. Gravity quickly pulled him down, and he sensed the ground get closer, but he didn't expect to have a thorny bush break his fall. Instantly, thousands of pointed burrs bit at his skin.

"Ow!" he yelped as the thorns prompted tears to well up in his eyes.

"Kuai Liang!" he heard Sifu Hydro yell from somewhere in the yard. The boy tried to wriggle out of the cruel branches' grip, but couldn't. No matter which way he turned, the thorns dug even deeper into him.

"Help," he croaked. Even speaking prompted the burrs to hurt him more.

"Calm down," his brother's voice spoke gently as his face came into view. "I'm here to rescue you. As always."

"It was Tomas' idea," he whimpered as his brother carefully lifted him from the thorn bush.

"I don't doubt it," Bi-han replied as he glared at the Czech boy. He set Kuai Liang on his feet. "You and me are gonna have a talk later," he growled at him before he looked at his younger brother. "Come on inside. It's starting to rain, and the food is ready."

The littler Cryomancer looked up sheepishly and saw not only his friends staring at him in disbelief, but the adults watching with wide mouths as well. Xiao-Ping, Asman, Anil, Sabira, and Bayarmaa all looked worried for him, but Sifu Hydro wore an angry red scowl. Kuai Liang hung his head, knowing he was in deep trouble. But as Bi-han led him inside, his mentor said nothing and followed them both into the hut just as the sky opened and poured out a deluge.

"Poor dear," Asman said to him shortly thereafter when everyone had been served a bowl of the yak stew. "Are you sure you're all right? Oniro can be quite a stupid goat sometimes."

Kuai Liang frowned as he plucked a thorn from his arm while his friends and family started eating. Ironically enough, the burr looked like a goat's head. "I'm fine," he grumbled. He was used to this kind of stuff happening. He was a hopeless klutz according to his father, and it didn't help matters that he was friends with Tomas.

"You should've seen his face though," the Czech boy laughed as he wrenched his face into an imitation of what he'd thought Kuai Liang's had looked like.

"Tomas," Sifu Hydro said warningly.

Xiao-Ping quickly cleared his throat. "To Kuai Liang," he said loudly as he raised his cup of water. "My adopted son. It's a big day for you because ten is a big number. You're finally on the threshold of being a man. Happy Birthday, Son."

The youngest Cryomancer cocked his head at the merchant's words while everyone else wished him a happy birthday. He looked at the middle-aged man and smiled when he saw the man wink and grin. He liked the idea of someone adopting him, especially someone like Xiao-Ping. That meant he was wanted. But then he felt a twinge of pain in his heart. He wished his _real_ father wanted him.

Bi-han must've recognized his little brother's sudden doldrums because he said, "Guess what, Kuai Liang. Asman made a cake for you."

The boy immediately perked up. The closest the Lin Kuei children got to dessert was fresh fruit. "Cool!" he said enthusiastically as Sabira retrieved a dish with a dense brown cake on it. She set it in front of him, and he started to dig a piece from the round pastry cut into wedges, but Bi-han grabbed his wrist and stopped him.

"Not yet," he sternly said. "We have to sing to you first."

Kuai Liang's eyebrows knitted together in confusion. "What are you talking about, Bi-han? That sounds dumb."

"It's tradition," Sifu Hydro added.

"Yeah, even I know that," Tomas said with an ornery grin. "I know the song, too. So guess what? I taught it to everyone here."

With that, he started singing a simple tune in Czech. Quickly, Bi-han and Hydro matched the melody in English while everyone else followed along in Tibetan. Though the languages were different, the Cryomancer recognized that the message was the same: _Happy birthday to you / happy birthday to you / happy birthday dear Kuai Liang / happy birthday to you!_

"And many more!" Tomas warbled comically when the song was finished.

Kuai Liang laughed. "Thanks, everyone," he said with a smile. They had just sang a song with _his_ name in it, and he'd never felt more special, more like the center of the universe, than at that moment. It was a good feeling, probably because it was a feeling he'd never had before. With a light heart, he passed out pieces of the cake to his friends and family.

"I have a present for you. Well, actually, it's from both Tomas and me," Bi-han announced, "but it's back at the temple."

"Idjit, why didn't you bring it along then?" Sifu Hydro asked him as he rolled his eyes. He looked at the younger of the two brothers. "Here, boy. This is for you." He pulled an old hunting knife with a bone handle from the inside of his dark blue tunic and handed it to him. "I've had this since I was about your age," he explained. "Figured you could use it when you go hunting."

"Thank you, Sifu," Kuai Liang said politely. He already loved the knife. He could tell, judging by the dings and scratches in the ancient metal, that it had a lot of character.

"_We_ made you some new arrows," Tomas said. "Knew you were running low."

"Yeah, you'll be able to tell which ones I did and which ones he did," Bi-han began. "The ones I did will actually fly straight." He got a rousing laugh from everyone at the table for his joke, but Tomas frowned.

"We got you something as well," Xiao-Ping told the boy. "Evidently, we're all thinking about your skills as a hunter." He nodded to Asman, who pulled out a small package wrapped in a piece of sackcloth. She handed it to Kuai Liang, who promptly unwrapped it to find a leather archer's glove.

He grinned. "Thank you," he said. "This will help a lot."

"I figured it would," the merchant said with a smile. "And now you can stop worrying about getting blisters on your hand when you shoot your bow."

By then, the rain had died down completely and Narayan looked outside longingly. "Can we go play again?" he asked his parents.

"Only if you stay away from the goat," his mother replied. "If anyone goes near Oniro, everyone is getting smacked with a willow switch." All the children, Kuai Liang included, cringed at the thought. But he had no intention of going near that insane creature after his misadventure earlier, so he didn't think he had anything to worry about. All the children – and now Bi-han, Sabira, and Bayarmaa too – traipsed outside.

"What should we do?" Taja asked the group.

"We could play hide and seek," Tomas suggested.

"No way," Kuai Liang immediately protested. "You always win because you can vanish."

"So?"

"So, that's cheating."

"Hey, I'm just using what God gave me," the Czech boy laughed. But when he saw everyone's reluctance to play with him because of his powers, he sighed. "Oh, all right," he finally conceded. "I promise I won't vanish."

"You better not," Sonam said. "Or I'll tell Papa."

"Ugh, who died and made _you _the hall monitor?" Tomas retorted. He had a point. The child was a lot like Jiao-long in that he was quick to tattle on the others.

"Well, you kids can play if you like," Bi-han said as he puffed out his chest a little. "But I'm gonna stand over there. This game is for babies." He pointed to the small barn near Oniro's pen.

Kuai Liang frowned. Bi-han liked playing hide and seek; it was one of the few games he'd actually play with his younger brother, and he was good at it too. "But, Bi-han, _you _play it-"

"Shut up!" the teenager hissed as his blue eyes darted to Sabira. Suddenly, the younger Cryomancer understood. His brother had lied to impress the Tibetan girl. Kuai Liang snorted and chuckled as he looked at Tomas, who also understood and was smirking.

"Okay, let's play!" Narayan cried. "Tomas, this was your idea, so you're it first."

"Fine by me," he haughtily replied. "Let's do this." He closed his eyes and started to count to twenty while all the children scattered and Bi-han sauntered to the barn. Sabira followed him.

Kuai Liang avoided the thorny bush, but found a leafy one nearby that he crouched inside. To his surprise, Hadiya, the shy ten-year-old, quickly joined him. He glanced at her and put his finger to his lips to indicate for her to be quiet. Her cheeks, as always when she was around him, blazed red.

"I have a birthday present for you too," she whispered.

"Oh. Well, thanks," he replied awkwardly, wondering why she hadn't given it to him when everyone else gave him theirs. But she didn't give him time to ponder on it before she fumbled in her hand-woven red and pink jacket for something. In a second, she produced a small hoop made from tiny wooden beads that were strung tightly together. Dangling from it were three or four thin leather strips. Kuai Liang recognized a set of Tibetan prayer beads immediately.

"I made it myself," she said. "Your brother told us he was teaching you how to meditate. These will help you." Hadiya handed them to the Cryomancer.

"Cool," he replied sincerely. "Thank you." So he didn't lose them, he slipped them onto his wrist like a bracelet, and as he did, she caught him by surprise again when she unexpectedly planted a kiss on the corner of his mouth. Now it was _his _turn to blush. "What was that for?" he asked her with wide eyes as he rubbed the spot she'd touched.

But she didn't get a chance to answer because that was when they both heard Tomas clear his throat to get their attention. "Kuai Liang, I _so_ own you now," his best friend announced. He looked up at his best friend who was now smirking so hard he thought his face might crack. The Czech boy had his arms crossed and started singing _Kuai Liang and Hadiya / sittin' in a tree / K – I – S – S – I – N - G_…

"Shut up, Tomas!" he yelled as he jumped to his feet and stormed back towards his brother. He'd just stand with Bi-han while the other kids played. But when he stepped into view of the older Cryomancer, he saw that his brother was leaning dangerously close to Sabira, holding her hands in his own, and smiling as the two conversed in hushed tones. He scowled. Ugh! Stupid girls. Tomas was going to be impossible to live with now, and he suspected his brother would be as well, and it was all Hadiya and Sabira's fault.

"Kuai Liang! Bi-han!" Sifu Hydro barked loudly. Immediately, both boys stiffened as their mentor stood at the edge of the yard with his arms crossed. He motioned for them to follow him.

"Where are we going?" the younger boy asked as they quickly caught up to him.

"You'll see," he replied.

He led them around the house and into Xiao-Ping's shop next door where the aging merchant was waiting for them. "Are you having a good time today?" he asked Kuai Liang as he and Bi-han wiped the mud from their boots on the mat at the door.

"Yeah," he said quietly. It was mostly true. Besides the incident with the goat, he'd had fun. Even Hadiya's sneak attack on his lips hadn't been _that_ bad. He subconsciously rubbed the corner of his mouth and blushed again.

"Good," Hydro said. "You boys need to let loose every now and then."

Bi-han and Kuai Liang exchanged a puzzled look. Their Sifu's actions always suggested he believed that, but he'd never come out and said it before. The Lin Kuei, collectively speaking, was totally committed to the idea of 'all work and no play.'

"I agree," Xiao-Ping said. "And you, little Kuai Liang, should be grateful to have a brother who cares so much about you. Today was his idea, and he worked very hard to bring it all together."

The younger boy looked at Bi-han. The teenager looked down on him with his usual stern expression, but then suddenly broke into a grin and wrapped an arm around his shoulder. Kuai Liang grinned too before he found himself leaning into a half-hug while his brother patted his back.

"I _am_ grateful," the boy declared in all sincerity. "I have the best brother in the world." When he said that, Bi-han squeezed him tightly.

"Well, before we get too sentimental like a bunch of women," Hydro began, "there's one last thing we need to do before we have to go home, boys."

"Take a picture?" Bi-han asked hopefully.

"You got it," their Sifu replied. "I managed to scrounge up a camera."

"A picture?" Kuai Liang repeated. "But…I thought we weren't allowed to be photographed."

"Well, what the Grandmaster don't know won't kill him, will it?" the man said as he looked at the boy expectantly. He pulled an old camera from his tunic.

"But why?"

"Because I wanted that to be my other present to you," Bi-han explained. "Mom _always _took a million pictures of us, especially on our birthdays. That way, we remember the day better when we're grown up."

"Oh."

"Okay, you two idjits," Hydro said, "get against that wall." He pointed to a wall lined with shelves full of Tibetan curios, things mostly meant for tourists to buy. Kuai Liang and Bi-han obeyed, and both smiled as their Sifu snapped the picture.

A few weeks later, Bi-han showed it to him. The younger brother had no idea where Hydro had it developed, but he didn't question it. Instead, he admired the way he and his brother stood smiling side by side, forever frozen in that one rare, happy moment in time. He smiled at his big brother and then flipped the picture over again.

"You really _are_ the best brother in the world," he said.

"Yeah, I know," Bi-han replied as he tousled the boy's hair and then shoved him playfully to the side. "Dork." Then both of them burst into laughter.


	6. Rani the Maneater

**Author's Note: Sorry for the delay in updating this, all. I know it's been several months, but I swear I haven't abandoned it! I just got focused on my thesis and "Frostbitten," and I couldn't think of any stories to add to this. So, enjoy my little tall-tale. **

* * *

The winter of 1997-98 was one of the worst on record in the Himalayas, wreaking total destruction on the region. There were great herds of yak feasting on overgrazed mountain land during the summer, so when the early, wet snow froze the ground into a thick crust of ice, the poor beasts couldn't get to the grass beneath. Blizzards and bitter cold soon followed, and the high Himalayan plains were quickly littered with thousands of bovine bodies.

One blizzard in particular was nasty. In less than twenty-four hours, the dull gray sky dumped nearly six feet of snow on the foothills. Several rickety shacks collapsed under the weight of the snow, and between those malfunctions and the below zero temperatures, several people, especially the very old or the very young, died in winter's cruel clutches. One Tibetan, a slightly vain young man who invested more money in his normal clothes than a proper coat, unwittingly crossed into Lin Kuei territory because it was further south than where he came from, and he assumed it would be warmer. He froze to death on the shores of the Yarlung Tsangpo River's bitter southern bank.

The next day, Kuai Liang, Bi-han, and Tomas, following the youngest Cryomancer's gut instinct that it was a prime time to hunt, stumbled across his corpse, blue as the Arctic Ocean and half-buried in the snow. Children of the Himalayas, they knew to dress warmer than he had, apparently. Over their usual training uniforms they wore heavy coats insulated with fur, woolly yak breeches and scarves tied around their black cowls, sheepskin mittens, and thick tabi boots and socks. Even still, Bi-han admired the Tibetan's leather boots because their craftsmanship looked far superior to the ones he wore.

"That idiotic popsicle looks to be the same boot size as me so I'm keeping them," he told the younger two boys as he staggered through the snow to the corpse and tugged at the Tibetan's feet. The right boot seemed to be frozen on, and the left didn't want to come off any easier.

Tomas chuckled. "Poor sap looks like he just went three rounds with your old man and lost." He grinned at Kuai Liang, who only cringed at the mention of his father and tightened his grip on his bow.

"It's no good," Bi-han grunted in defeat, ignoring the Czech boy's comment. "They're stuck on tight. I'll just cut his feet off and thaw them later when we build a fire."

"Ew," his younger brother said just as their friend asked, "Are you sure that's a good idea, Bi-han? You're just begging for his ghost to come back and haunt you."

The older Cryomancer scowled at the twelve-year-old. "Don't be a superstitious ninny. His soul isn't even here. He doesn't even need his feet anymore."

"But you're gonna bring bad karma on yourself by dismembering his body," the other warned. "Remember what Sifu Halsey said about karma and-"

"Shut up, you weenie," he snapped, though inwardly Tomas' seriousness somewhat shocked him. Even still, in his hands he formed a kori sword, his newest Cryomancy skill, and promptly sawed through the Tibetan's shins just above the furry boot tops. Then he put the booted feet in his hiking pack, but not before he admired the leather's quality and the stitching that joined that leather to the sole. Finally, as Kuai Liang wrinkled his nose in disgust and Tomas stared at him as if he were about to be struck by lightning, Bi-han led them down the river to search for any animal that dared to present itself.

After an hour or so of staggering through deep snow, they stumbled onto a herd of deer that proved to be excellent at playing tag. Once they knew the three boys hunted them, they took off running so that every arrow the boys fired missed. Then, they'd pause for a moment as if to say, _Nyah-nyah-knee-boo-boo, stick your head in doo-doo!_ Bi-han could almost _hear_ their snide remarks, and his mule-headed stubbornness set in. Long after Kuai Liang and Tomas wanted to give up on these particularly snotty deer, he insisted on chasing after them even more, and as a result they lost most of their daylight trying to bag just one.

Finally, he conceded defeat as twilight settled on Lin Kuei territory, but not before Kuai Liang kicked him hard in the shin and flooded him with sense. His little brother, whose face had contorted into an angry red storm-cloud, said, "It's too late to try to get back to the Temple now, you guys. It's a good five miles away, uphill, in the snow. So I guess we're having a camp-out."

"In this cold?" Tomas retorted. "Are you out of your mind? You two might be the Wintermint Twins, but some of us aren't exactly equipped to survive a deep freeze."

"Hey, you know we're not either," the youngest of the three retorted. "We can freeze to death just like you can. So you can thank my idiot brother for being an idiot."

"Thanks, Bi-han," Tomas grumbled. He glared at Bi-han, who simply shrugged.

"I'm not the one who wanted to go hunting today, remember?" the teenager retorted. "This was the little baby's idea. So don't blame me."

"I'm not a baby!" Kuai Liang indignantly yelped. Bi-han only shrugged again.

The temperature was rapidly falling, quickly growing so cold that their tears crackled on their corneas, and none of them dared to pee for fear he'd be frozen to the ground by an icy tether until spring. It had to be below zero now, the cold made worse by the wind cutting through them like a scythe. Silence befell all three boys for a long moment, but then Tomas cried, "I know! There's a shepherd who lives close by. He's got this tiny yurt, but it's got a hot stove and he'd probably feed us."

"Is that the guy you stole _khir_ from?" Kuai Liang asked him pointedly.

"I'm sure he's forgotten all about that by now," the other replied, waving his hand dismissively. "Besides, he never knew it was me anyway. He wasn't that smart." His gray eyes drifted away, undoubtedly to that place in his memory where he'd outfoxed Jiao-long _and _ducked out of Grandmaster Oniro's punishment, all while indulging in his favorite _khir_.

"Earth to Tomas!" Bi-han snapped a moment later as fresh snowflakes began to fall. "Quit daydreaming and take us to this man's place."

The Czech boy needed little prompting. A half a mile away, they found the yurt, saw the glow of a roaring fire through the tiny windows, and pounded on the door. Tu, the elderly shepherd, opened the door a crack, sized up the travelers, and then opened it wider.

"Come in," he said. "Lin Kuei or no, I won't let you children freeze to death."

"Thank you," all three mumbled in sincere gratitude, though it was hard to speak through their chattering teeth.

They stepped over the threshold and basked in the warmth of Tu's house, and then jumped in surprise when they saw a Siberian tiger lying against the opposite wall, sleeping. Bi-han and Kuai Liang instantly cast Tomas a bug-eyed stare, both wanting to know the same thing: _Did you realize this man had a tiger when you broke in and stole his food?_ Tomas, equally wild-eyed as realization dawned on him, slightly shook his head no. Tu noticed their trepidation but still clapped them on the back and ushered them forward anyway.

"You can sleep wherever you can find a spot on the floor," he explained to them. "But keep an eye on Rani. She's my baby but she's not so kind to strangers. She will chew you up and spit you out."

"Um, sir?" Kuai Liang nervously began. "Why do you have a tiger in your house?"

"Why _shouldn't_ I have a tiger in my house?" the other replied. "Rani keeps me company and not a damn fool will mess with me now that she's around. A few years ago, I had a wolf prowling around my yurt. Came in and ate my _khir_. Odd thing for a wolf to eat, but you can't deny that I heard it howling and scuttling around my yard. Guess it realized it couldn't get to my sheep so it took the next best thing. After that, I bought Rani off the Black Market, and I've spoiled her rotten."

"Why do I get the feeling we're going to hear a story sometime in the near future about a man getting eaten by his pet tiger?" Tomas whispered to his companions, prompting Bi-han to nudge him in the ribs.

"Why do I get the feeling _we're_ going to have a starring role in that story?" Kuai Liang added. He shivered, but Bi-han couldn't tell if it was his attempt to shed the cold from his body, or from fear he refused to admit he felt.

"If you children are hungry, pull up a patch of floor and have some mutton stew. I've got plenty of goat's milk to wash it down with, and good stories for you as well."

"What about _khir_?" Tomas asked hopefully.

"Tomas!" both Kuai Liang and Bi-han hissed at the same time.

They had a fine time that evening. The boys had their fill of stew and milk, and though Tu had none of Tomas' favorite dessert, he _did_ treat them to an unfamiliar sweet bread filled with cinnamon and sugar. As they wolfed down their meal, the shepherd entertained them with tall-tales, and they repaid him with some of their own. Occasionally, Rani lifted her head at their raucous laughter, sniffed, but then promptly stretched out and went back to sleep like only a cat knew how. Finally, as the hour grew late and the wind howled angrily through the falling snow outside, Tu ordered the boys to go to sleep before he climbed into his cot and began to snore. Before he fell asleep as well, Bi-han set his new pair of boots, feet and all, by the stove.

Just before dawn, he woke with a start and realized that he had kitchen duty for the day, a punishment issued by his father the prior morning for throwing an apple he purposely froze at Jiao-long's face. Technically, he shouldn't have left the Temple to begin with, but he felt it was a better plan to sneak out than to avoid the elephant-faced teenager all day. He'd be in enough hot water simply for ducking out of the Lin Kuei stronghold, but if he missed kitchen duty, his name would be mud. No, his name would be ice, and his father would be the one who changed it. So he needed to get back, and fast.

Bi-han checked his trophies, saw they had thawed out, and quickly pulled the severed feet from them and their socks before he shoved his own feet into them. Then he threw the Tibetan feet and his older boots into the corner by the stove, informing a very sleepy Kuai Liang that the extra weight would slow him down, and therefore he needed to bring his tabi boots home with him when he came. As his little brother nodded his understanding and then dozed off once more, the Cryomancer slipped out like a ghost and then sprinted towards the Temple as fast as he could with the snow hindering his speed. The world was blanketed in soft, silvery white, but the wind had stopped, the briskness of the air refreshing.

Tu rose shortly thereafter and began frying mutton chops and hen eggs on his stove. When their breakfast was ready, he said to Tomas and Kuai Liang, "Get up, children. Food's ready." Not that he needed to tell them. The savory smells of herbs and spices roused them from their surprisingly peaceful sleep. Rani seemed to have been a very gracious host, at least until she batted at something that looked like a man's foot. Tu curiously peered at her new toy.

"Is that what I think it is?" Tomas asked as he recoiled in disgust. He couldn't believe Bi-han just left them in the middle of the floor, and he frowned at his best friend.

"Well, this is a terrible start to the day," the old shepherd said. "This is a man's foot and there's its mate." He did a quick head count. Only the two younger boys remained, both of whom exchanged a puzzled glance. "Oh, please forgive me!" he suddenly yelled as he threw himself before them. They looked at him in wild-eyed shock at the elderly man who was practically frothing from the mouth as he apologized all over himself.

"Sir, I-" Kuai Liang began, but was interrupted.

"She ate Bi-han, your brother!" he cried. "Rani did! I knew she was a mean one, but I never thought she could swallow a man whole! You savage beast!" he screamed at the tiger as he drove her into the snow. Her feline expression looked just as astonished as Kuai Liang's. Tomas, meanwhile, struggled to contain his laughter as Tu ranted at the animal. "You'll never get a taste of human meat again. You're gonna stay out here with the wolves and the snow, you hell-bound monster! That'll teach you to eat a man." Secretly, though, he felt pleased he owned an animal that could eat a Lin Kuei warrior in one gulp.

Kuai Liang started to set him straight, but silenced himself when Tomas nudged him in the ribs, and played along when his best friend said, "Well, we can't return to the Temple without Bi-han. They'll come looking for him."

Now Tu nervously poured them both cups of sheep's milk. "Now, boys, you know it was an accident, and a terrible one. Your brother must've gotten too close to Rani, and she didn't like that none too well. I didn't know what a brute she really was. Can we please keep this amongst ourselves? You could say he froze to death and you had to leave him. Plus, I've got a bit of gold I can give you. You just eat your breakfast and don't make no trouble for me over a tragic accident. I've got enough trouble in the world without bringing the Lin Kuei down on my head."

"Okay," Tomas agreed for both him and Kuai Liang. "But you have to do one more thing for us too."

"I don't have anything else," the shepherd protested.

"Oh, it's not much," he said. "I just want you to make us _khir_. Now, and whenever we come calling for it."

Tu couldn't deny that was a fairly reasonable request. And true to their word, Tomas and Kuai Liang didn't make any trouble for him. They loaded the money he gave them into their hiking packs, drank their cups of sheep's milk and ate the _khir_ when it was ready, thanked their host for his hospitality, and then trudged into the snow. They returned to the Temple several hours later, and when they saw Bi-han that night after he'd fulfilled his kitchen duties _and _gotten a whipping for sneaking out, they smiled knowingly, ready to share their treasure with him for his role.

"Don't be weird," Bi-han admonished in a flat tone as he admired his new boots some more.

"Here's your stinky, sweaty, nasty ones," Kuai Liang said as he threw his brother's old tabi boots at his head. "Hope your new ones were worth leaving corpse feet in the middle of the floor for."

"You're just jealous."

"Of what? That you're wearing boots you stole off a dead guy?" he countered.

"No, that I saw them first, that I'm smarter than you so I took them because they're made better than ours, and that I'm better looking than you now that I have them," he sneered. "Then again, I was _always_ better looking."

"I hope that man's ghost comes back to haunt you," Tomas cursed him. "Rani the Maneater decided to use them for her playthings."

Bi-han laughed. "That's hilarious," he chuckled.

"That's sacrilegious," the other retorted.

"Only to a superstitious baby. Both of you are acting like babies, by the way. I'm shocked I didn't have to hold your hands to guide you home." Bi-han sneered at them as he paused. "Too bad your gut instincts didn't pan out, little brother. It's kind of pitiful when you return home empty-handed. But at least I bagged a trophy." For the hundredth time in the last fifteen minutes, he pulled his leg to his face and admired his new boots.

"We _didn't _come home empty-handed," Kuai Liang protested and Tomas promptly shoved him to the side.

"Nope," the Czech boy quickly agreed when the eldest looked at them expectantly. "We came home with sweet, sweet memories. You know, of the _khir _that Tu made us for breakfast?"

Bi-han raised an eyebrow. "You two are weird little girls, you know that?"

The younger two boys exchanged a glance, and decided in that moment _not _to tell the older Cryomancer about their stroke of good luck after all. Bi-han had, after all, already gotten a prize in their adventure. And ultimately, both Kuai Liang and Bi-han knew that the math worked out better when dividing by two than dividing by three.


End file.
